Admission requirements
There are no requirements.
Description
This course introduces selected contemporary topics in physics as well as basic academic skills of modern research.
Students will be provided with a bird’s-eye view of contemporary challenges in the physics community through work sessions and guest lectures covering all the major fields in physics. There will be special emphasis on the topics that are central to LION (Leiden Institute of Physics) because LION most likely will play a part in the student’s foreseeable future.
In interactive work sessions, students will learn about academic skills: searching literature, reading papers, writing reports, and presenting posters. A group research project forms the core of this class. In groups of three, you choose a recent research question and apply the before mentioned research skills to discover current challenges related to your question. You will discuss the outcomes with your peers, and will present a poster with your findings at the end of the course.
Course objectives
After this class, you will be able to dive into a completely new research topic and summarize the key challenges in a written report and a poster presentation.
This involves that you are able to
Select a difficult contemporary topic in physics that interests the members of your group
Pose a physics related and unanswered question
Use the main tools for literature search to find papers related to a specialized topic
Digest difficult research papers efficiently so that you can gauge their quality and extract key information
Write a literary overview that recapitulates the main results of an extensive collection of research papers related to a specialized topic
Summarize the current key challenges for a specialized physics topic in a written report and a poster presentation
Schedule
The timetables are available through My Timetable (see the button in the upper right corner).
Teaching method
See Brightspace
Assesment method
Handed in reports and poster session.
Resit, review & feedback
Examinations are held twice during the academic year for each component offered in that academic year. Midterm tests cannot be retaken. The Board of Examiners determines the manner of resit for practical assignments.
For review and feedback, see Brightspace.
Reading list
Papers related to your research project.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap (button in upper right corner) is mandatory. General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer(s) (listed in the right information bar).
Remarks
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.